Colonial period 1.1 HAITI
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THE CORRECT ANSWER: Sugar cane
In the 18th century, the French colony of Saint-Domingue became the world's leading sugar producer, well ahead of its Caribbean competitors. Nicknamed the “pearl of the Antilles”, the island derived most of its economic prosperity from the intensive cultivation of sugar cane.This mass production relied entirely on the plantation system and the brutal exploitation of hundreds of thousands of African slaves. Raw sugar, called brown sugar, as well as refined white sugar were exported en masse to Europe via French ports like Bordeaux and Nantes.This luxury commodity, extremely popular on European tables, generated gigantic profits for the colonists and the Kingdom of France. In addition to sugar, the colony also produced coffee, indigo and cotton, but cane remained the central pillar of this ultra-profitable and devastating colonial economy.